Parents want teachers to address their child’s individual needs. Teachers want this too. They want to be able to work with and understand the students they teach. They especially want to help the students in their classes who have exceptional differences. This is difficult to do when class sizes are too large. If elementary teachers […]
Dallas Dance: Dancing Into School Districts with Digital Devices
Resigned BCPS Superintendent Dallas Dance Takes Consulting Jobs By Joanne C. Simpson Dallas Dance could be coming to a school district near you. For a visit anyway. Dance’s new role after leaving his $287,000 annual superintendent job at Baltimore County Public Schools after June 30–at least two national consulting gigs. Both companies, MGT Consulting Group […]
IEPs are a Public School Thing: Let’s Not Forget That!
The Governor of Florida and other education reformers seem to have forgotten where Individual Educational Plans (IEPs) started. In this post, I’d like to remind them. The other night I watched the movie Danny Collins. It’s a loosely based true story about a burned out rock star who learns that years earlier he received a […]
Trip Down Memory Lane with Florida’s McKay Vouchers
One more awful bill in Florida is being used to push public schools towards privatization and poor schooling for students. Said to be 55 bills in one, HB 7069 use words like “starvation” to reference funding for public schools. Charters are called “Schools of Hope” even though Florida’s charter school record is dismal. Many Floridians […]
Jeb Bush, Retention, and the Failed Ferris Wheel of School Reform
Jeb Bush continues to ride the failed Ferris wheel of school reform. He is most likely emboldened by state politicians and business leaders, like in Michigan, subscribing to harmful 3rd grade retention policies. Also, with a fancy university invitation for him to lecture about schools and stuff. Michigan is following Florida’s lead, and that of […]
Destroying Special Education through Common Core Testing and Funding Cuts
How are things going with these special education cuts after time has gone by? I’m looking at what’s happening currently. Let me know of any program cuts in your school district and I will write about them. This was originally posted August 25, 2015. ___________________________________________ Kindness is a language which the deaf can hear and […]
Striving Towards Local Control of Public Schools—A Proposal for Lee County and Beyond!
I would like to put forth a proposal. What could the Lee County School Board do to make everyone happy or at least happier? I have an idea. Patricia Levesque, CEO of Tallahassee-based Foundation for Excellence in Education, Jeb Bush’s group, put out a long statement expressing “deep disappointment” in “abandoning” the tests. She mentioned […]
Who Owns Your Schools? In Lee County, Florida They Belong to Parents and Children
For years now, I’ve wondered who owns school boards. Venture philanthropists come into cash-strapped districts and suddenly parents and citizens find their voices no longer matter. Anyone with the right amount of money, well-meaning or not, can take over how schools in that district will be run and what students will learn. Is that about […]
Testing Kindergartners and a Rise in Disabilities: Is There A Connection?
Why are children, no matter rich or poor, showing up with more disabilities—especially ADHD? Here is USA Today telling about the report in Pediatrics. Could it be because they are being pushed harder than ever before, with less, if any, recess or breaks? Perhaps they’re tired of school, or all that Common Core stuff is […]
The Continuing Bizarre Message That We MUST Test Students with Severe Disabilities—Say NO!
I wish I were a judge and had some of these ed. reformers who believe tests are more important than children come before me. Honestly. I’d send them to jail. Mandates written to play Gottcha with children’s services, intentionally designed to get rid of services and teachers, are wrong. America shouldn’t be the place to […]